Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs

故マーティン・フィリップスが率いたニュージーランドはダニーデンの伝説的インディー・ロック・バンド、ザ・チルズのラスト・アルバムがリリース。マーティンが生前にレコーディングした自らの初期の未発表曲をコンパイルした作品。

『Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs』はMartin Phillippsの情熱的なプロジェクトだ。Martinの初期の未発表曲を忠実に再現したこのアルバムは、彼の芸術的な別れ、永遠の遺産、そして、巨大ながらも過小評価された彼の才能を思い出させる。The Chillsのシンガー、ソングライター、そして主なモチベーターであるMartin Phillippsは、60 歳という歳月をいつものように元気に過ごしながら、過去10年間スタジオ・アルバムやライヴ・アルバムをリリースしてきた。そうした状況下で、Martinは古いテープを掘り返し、1987年に世界が彼に熱狂するきっかけとなった基盤を探していた。そして、これらの初期の曲や瞑想は、再検討され、改訂され、最終的にレコーディングされた。『Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs』は、計り知れないほど重要な成果を記録した、The Chillsの最終章だ。

As part of New Zealand’s Dunedin scene, the Chills played an incalculably important role in shaping the sound of independent rock. Centered around singer, songwriter, and the band’s sole consistent member Martin Phillipps, the Chills offered a moodier, more uneasy counterpoint to the puckish experimentalism of the Tall Dwarfs or the proto-slacker melodicism of janglier rock bands like the Clean or Sneaky Feelings. Through the ‘80s and early ‘90s, the Chills carved out a particular sound within their scene, and Phillipps continued refining that sound with new songs and albums right up until his death in 2024. Springboard: The Early Unrecorded Songs is a project Phillipps was working on at the time of his death, one that found him returning to songs he’d started writing in his youth but had never formally completed or released. Many of these songs date back to the early ‘80s when the Chills were just getting off the ground, and tracks like “Juicy Creaming Soda” or the spirited and organ hook-driven “Dolphins” captured the signature sighing melancholy that the Chills and so many other Flying Nun bands of the mid-’80s could deliver by just moving from one loosely played guitar chord to another. “And When You’re There” is more rocking, with distorted guitars, big drums, and bending synth lines firing on all cylinders without losing any of Phillipps’ distinctive character as an ever-tuneful songwriter. “If This World Was Made for Me” taps into yet another side of Phillipps’ songwriting personality, the eerie, almost menacing shadowiness that made some of the band’s best-loved tracks like “Pink Frost” so mysteriously captivating. On this song, Phillipps envisioned his ideal world, a relatively mundane premise set to an instrumental so ominous and cinematic it renders the lyrics almost unsettling. When Phillipps began the process of revisiting these songs he’d begun writing in his twenties, he was in his early sixties, and rewrote each unfinished composition from the vantage point of those decades of further experience and wisdom. Though the fact that Springboard ultimately became a posthumous album makes it especially bittersweet, it’s an exceptionally successful experiment in revisiting and reframing the past. Whether his songs are taking the form of noisy fun, moody bleakness, or naive and wistful pop, Phillipps is able to reconnect with his younger self in a beautiful way. These 20 songs allow a veteran songwriter to celebrate the parts of himself that never changed and also gently appreciate all the growth and understanding he gained through the parts that did change. Its a perfect full-circle final statement from an artist who spent his life penning songs of curiosity and introspection, and beyond that, its a joy to listen to. ~ Fred Thomas